On the 1st of November 2008, His Majesty received the sacred Dar-Na-Nga from the Holy Machhen (the 357-year-old embalmed body of Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal), in the presence of the fourth Druk Gyalpo and His Holiness the Je Khenpo, yesterday morning at the Puna Dechen Phodrang Dzong in Punakha.

The Dar-Na-Nga are the five sacred sashes of silk bearing five colors (representing the five elements) blessed by the Holy Machhen each time a royal successor to the Dragon Throne is invested as the king.

On the 31st of October, 2008, His Majesty King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck travelled from Thimphu to Punakha the ancient capital. Upon arrival in Punakha, His Majesty was received in a grand Chipdrel ceremonial procession. Later in the day, His Majesty hosted a lunch for the hundreds of people who had come to witness the Sacred Dar ceremony the next day.

His Majesty also joined the other members of the Royal Family, and the people in a game of archery.

It is the end – and the beginning – of history. On the morning of November 1, the third day of the ninth Bhutanese month, His Majesty the King will be empowered as the Druk Gyalpo in a unique and sacred empowerment ceremony, which symbolises his transcendence of the ordinary and the temporal and the personification of divine wisdom.

His Majesty will receive the Dar Na-Nga, a special arrangement of the primary colours that signify the five elements. The ceremony will take place in the Machhen Lhakhang, and the Dar Na-Nga will be symbolically conferred by Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal, in the presence of the fourth Druk Gyalpo, with the empowerment prayer chanted by His Holiness the Je Khenpo.

About 2,500 years ago a Prince walked away from his Palace, his material comforts, his Throne. He did it to help his people, through education and through spirituality. He eventually showed them, and the world, the path to enlightenment.

Less than two years ago, another King walked away from his Throne. He also did it to help his people, having paved the way for his son to take over the responsibility to guide his kingdom into the future.